New Delhi, June 7 (IANS): A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking to postpone postgraduate entrance test being conducted by AIIMS on June 16 and termed the schedule of the exam an utter disregard to the assurance given by the Prime Minister's Office while postponing the NEETPG Examination, 2021 by four months.

A group of 26 doctors led by Poulami Mondal contended that holding of Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI CET) 2021 would be in contravention of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The plea said initially the examination was scheduled to take place in May 2021, which stood postponed due to the worsening COVID situation. Later, a notification on May 27, was issued by assistant controller (Exams), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for the exam on June 16. The petitioners said there are some 815 seats in 10 colleges for which more than 80,000 doctors will appear and take the examination.

The plea argued that after assurance from the PMO, many doctors have taken a job and have become frontline workers with no spare time to prepare for the test.

"In the prevailing circumstances due to COVID-19, the conducting of this examination is resulting in building up pressure on the graduate doctors from across India to sit for the examination on June 16, 2021, when under the present circumstances the Board examinations (Central Board of Secondary Education 10th and 12th Grade) and other professional examinations have been either cancelled or postponed", said the plea.

The plea contended that this is not in public interest in view of the present condition of the country and non-availability of doctors, beds in the hospitals coupled with the fact that there is a dearth of Covid-19 vaccination.

"Since there is not enough time for most of them to travel back in order to take the examinations and they are most likely to be affected by travel restrictions as imposed by different states. This puts undue burden on already fatigued, distressed and tired doctors", added the plea.

The plea emphasized that more than 80,000 graduate doctors are expected to take up INI CET for admission in post graduate courses in 10 colleges, including AIIMS, JIPMER, PGIMER, NIMHANS across the country.